[tinyowl]

Reason why the Roman Empire fell - Christianity

Christianity - Life and the future seemed hopeless for the millions who were ruled by Rome where an early death was almost inevitable. Christianity taught the belief in an afterlife which gave hope and courage to the desperate. Eventually a Roman Emperor, Constantine the Great, proclaimed himself a Christian and issued an edict promising the Christians his favor and protection. Attitudes in the Roman Empire changed from being antagonistic to becoming pacifistic"

Not sure I quite follow this (sarcasm - it's actually complete crap logic - no logic attempted.) This seems a typical shot at Christianity inserted by the publisher and not in the original text. It's not even a very good attempt. If a loss of Morals and Ethics were destroying Rome ... how exactly did Christianity help destroy Rome? Again - even without all the obvious counter-arguments, they don't even make a case for it, except to weakly suggest that 'antagonism giving way to pacifism killed Rome' ... but Christianity is not exactly pacifistic ... Jesus came with the sword.

[gusty]

The argument was that the old Roman religion was more martial in outlook. More emphasize on warfare. Similar arguments were made in the mid 20th Century by Fascists and Nazis who admired the old Roman and Germanic religions for the same reason. Roman religion was also completely tied to the state. One showed loyalty to the state by following Roman religious practices. It is why Christians were persecuted at times during the Roman Empire before Constantine. The Romans did not object to the dogma so much, they really did not care, they objected to the refusal of Christians bowing down to Roman deities. To the Romans, it was a sign of disloyalty to the Roman state. The Roman view of religion was you could do whatever you want in privacy, but you must show loyalty to the Empire in public, and that included participating in Roman religious ceremonies.